1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game apparatus and a program for displaying an enemy character controlled by a computer as a game image on a screen and battling with the enemy character in a manner that a player operates an operating means.
2. Description of the Related Art
In game apparatuses that realize computer games such as so-called action games and role playing games, leading characters (play characters) in game images displayed on screens of display devices are controlled according to manipulate signals from input devices (controller pads) operated by players, so that stories of the games make progress. In recent years, as hardware performance improves, game images where player characters act in virtual three-dimensional space are provided by three-dimensional graphics so that a productive effect of the games is heightened.
The three-dimensional graphics are used for obtaining a spatial position relationship of an object in a visual line direction from a visual point position in a virtual three-dimensional space based on three-dimensional data expressing the object and executing an image process such as a rendering process so as to express the object three-dimensionally. That is to say, in games utilizing the three-dimensional graphic, play characters and other objects are expressed three-dimensionally and images captured from a predetermined visual point position in the game space are displayed.
In game apparatuses that provide game images, which express virtual three-dimensional spaces from particular camera angles in game images using a lot of three-dimensional graphics such as action games, for example, the following game image is provided. For example, the game image is obtained in a manner that characters that move in game spaces according to a player's operations are tracked to be taken by a virtual camera arranged in a position above and behind the character. In the case where a thing other than a background which is present in the far distance, such as fog is expressed, an effect image on which the background is expressed is synthesized with images of a far background and a character so as to be displayed. As a result, various things which enter the visual field of the virtual camera are expressed, thereby providing a sense of reality.
As computer games which progress using such a virtual camera, games where a visual point can be switched is realized. For example, in a driving game, an image can be switched into images viewed from desired visual points according to a player's operation (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-116343, for example). Such visual points include: a visual point 1, “a slightly rear side of a self vehicle”; a visual point 2, “a visual point of a player (driver); a visual point 3, “low-level rear side of the self vehicle”; and a visual point 4, “high-level rear side of the self vehicle”. There is a so-called gun shooting game where an image viewed from a visual point different from the above visual points is displayed. In the genre of this game, an image where an enemy is shot in the scene that the visual point of a player is rolled in a certain scene of the game so as to be upside down is disclosed.